All posts tagged: The Bushwick Collective

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.20.17

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.20.17

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Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Adnate, Ben Angotti, Cekis, Cesism, Damien Mitchell, Danielle Mastrion, Dirt Cobain, Evan Paul English, Gongkan, Li-Hill, MeresOne, UFO 907, Vince Ballentine, and You Go Girl!

Top image: Li-Hill. Detail. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adnate. Detail. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adnate and Li-Hill at work. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Li-Hill at work. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Li-Hill at work. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Li-Hill at work. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Li-Hill at work. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adnate at work. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adnate at work. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adnate and Li-Hill collaboration for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adnate. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Danielle Mastrion with MeresOne for Stuyvesant Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

MeresOne for Stuyvesant Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dirt Cobain for Stuyvesant Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Damien Mitchell for Stuyvesant Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Angotti for Stuyvesant Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vince Ballentine for Stuyvesant Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

UFO907 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You Go Girl (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Evan Paul English for Centrefuge Public Art Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cekis and Cesism for Centrefuge Public Art Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gongkan for Centrefuge Public Art Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gongkan for Centrefuge Public Art Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. East Village, NYC. August 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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BSA Images Of The Week: 07.30.17

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.30.17

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We really dig these new collaged political cartoons that are on the street as quickly as the weeks news – each depicting one of the many rich white men who are impacting our minds and our bank accounts and our health and sense of security right now. Are we watching the White House or Good Fellas? The backstabbing, front stabbing, chicanery, and ongoing systemic tomfoolery makes you wonder who’s actually running things.

The news cycle is hourly it seems, with tweets and personnel changes and threats happening so fast that people are developing PTSD that is triggered by news alerts on the phone. We have to admire any Street Artist who tries to keep up with the developments and get their commentary on a wall.

Many young and old New Yorkers are wincing from high rent, high debts, crumbling infrastructure, and everyone is working longer hours, if they are lucky enough to work. Some just give up. Meanwhile the one plausible healthcare option that many have gained over the last handful of years? – the servants of the rich have been trying to stab it to death – but they couldn’t muster it this week. Even now – Trump says he’ll stand by and watch it die rather than improve it in any way. Have we ever had a leader who is so cynical?

Even Senator McCain – in our top image above – fresh off his tax-payer funded brain cancer surgery, waivered this week before providing the pivotal vote that saved healthcare for 20 million or so. Most GOP Senators ignored the majority of the US citizens who implored them to fix Obamacare not nix it. But their bank accounts proved far more important than our health. The rich and their corporations are flooding our entire political system and only after we get their money out would we be able to call the USA a democracy. Otherwise we are just fooling ourselves.

So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Bifido, El Sol 25, Jarus, London Kaye, Luna Park, Miss17, MSK, Myth, Otto Schade, Rime, SikaOne, Solus, Sonni, Spy33, and Wonderpuss Octopus.

Top image: Unidentified artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sonni (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Solus for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sidka One (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Otto OSCH Schade “Taurus” in Shoreditch, London. (photo © Otto Osch Shade)

Otto OSCH Schade “Taurus” in Shoreditch, London. (photo © Otto Osch Shade)

Otto OSCH Schade paints a small Snoopy and Woodstock on a sunsent in Shoreditch, London. (photo © Otto Osch Shade)

London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miss 17 with unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rime . MSK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bifido for Oltremare Festival in San Cataldo, Italy. (photo © Bifido)

“In this area the government is building a gas pipeline and to do it they are cutting many olive trees. Part of the local economy is based on olive oil production, so people are fighting for preserve their lands and trees. I wanted to address this situation with my artwork.” -Bifido

Bifido for Oltremare Festival in San Cataldo, Italy. (photo © Bifido)

Bifido for Oltremare Festival in San Cataldo, Italy. (photo © Bifido)

Luna Park for #resistanceisfemale (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist. We want to attribute this to Mr. Toll but we don’t think this is his work. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jarus for Art Untied Us in Kiev. Ukraine. (photo © Iryna Kanishcheva)

“This mural depicts a woman sitting at the window sill and reaching outwards. Turning the wall into a window is a metaphor for opening your mind and heart towards new ideas and concepts. The woman is in a red dress because I felt it would compositionally fit into the area of the wall and surrounding buildings.”-Jarus

Jarus for Art Untied Us in Kiev. Ukraine. (photo © Iryna Kanishcheva)

El sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Spy33 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wonderpuss Octopus (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist. Looks a lot like JMR work but we don’t think it is his. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Boots on the NYC Subway. March, 2017. Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 06.25.17

BSA Images Of The Week: 06.25.17


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‘Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017’’ it’s called, because “Kill The Poor” was not testing well in focus groups? Luckily, most people will never get sick or old, so this shouldn’t be a problem.

It’s LGBTQ Pride weekend in New York, the home of the original Stonewall Inn where all the colorful queens bashed back at the cops in 1969. All of these years’ celebrations seem more militant in the face of President Pence’s virulent statements and acts against anybody not straight like him and his “mother”.

Also it’s Eid al-Adha today, the end of Ramadan and a big celebration for Muslim New Yorkers, so best wishes to you.

In Street Art news the big story at the moment appears to be that Banksy may actually be Robert Del Naja from Massive Attack, which may explain why so many of his world views and of humanity are rather dismal, see what we did there?

So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Bert, Chor Boogie, El Sol 25, Gats, LMNOPI, Mr. Toll, Nepo, Resistance is Female, Sonni, Stik, Sipros, and Such.

Top image: Stik (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chor Boogie for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chor Boogie for The Bushwick Collective. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chor Boogie for The Bushwick Collective. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pride Train (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Dusty Rebel for #resistanceisfemale. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Dusty Rebel for #resistanceisfemale. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gats for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC. Detail. photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gats for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NEPO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sonni for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Such . Bert (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Such . Sipros for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sipros for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

…with some help from Mary… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Brooklyn, NY. June 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Exploring From Coney To Harlem: Fresh Art on The Streets This Summer in NYC

Exploring From Coney To Harlem: Fresh Art on The Streets This Summer in NYC

Summer brings people out onto the streets. New Yorkers especially love to congregate on corners, stoops, public parks and plazas, sidewalks and on the streets to soak in the sun and the excitement of summer after its long winter season. With that in mind we want to point you to what’s new on the streets of the city when it comes to Street Art and Graffiti, scenes that are constantly reinventing themselves and moving.

Here are five destinations with fresh new murals and Street Art painted this year that you can track down and enjoy on your own in an afternoon. Take a break by sitting on a stoop or a bench and enjoy the sounds and energy of each neighborhood and have a hot dog or a slice of watermelon, a slice of pizza – maybe an Italian ice!

Case Maclaim and Pixel Pancho updated their collaboration for this year’s edition of The Bushwick Collective Block Party. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Bushwick Collective in Brooklyn.

This 6 year old project spearheaded by Bushwick native Joe Ficalora continues to host international artists on walls spread on five blocks in this gentrifying neighborhood of Brooklyn. With more than a dozen freshly painted murals that were completed for this months annual block party, the cheek-to-jowl collection of murals feels like a treasure hunt of global styles all here to show off their best. While we still have the L train you can take it Jefferson et voilà!

Logan Hicks and Joe Iurato updated their collaboration for this year’s edition of The Bushwick Collective Block Party. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Coney Art Walls in Coney Island, Brooklyn.

In its third year, Coney Art Walls is an initiative of Thor Equities and in a curatorial collaboration with art maven Jeffrey Deitch….This year’s edition of Coney Art Walls brings ten freshly painted murals by American and international artists to add to the collection of 30 or so murals painted during the past two editions. Here you will see an eclectic mix of 1970s era train writers to some of today’s multi-conceptualists take on the broader theme of Coney Island, its characters, its rides, its foot long hot dogs.  A plethora of trains will take you there and be prepared to enjoy native graffiti in the “wild”on walls throughout the roughly 45 minutes train ride as your view rises on the elevated tracks. Take the N, Q, F, and D trains to Coney Island.

Lee Quinones. “Graffiti 20/20”. “If The Battle Chooses You. Choose What You Battle With” reads the caption on top of the mural. Lee recreates an updated version of his original “Graffiti 1979” mural painted on a handball court on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which he updated as “1990” and climbed down it in the opening of “Wild Style”, directed by Charlie Ahearn. Bringing the graffiti explosion back for a third time, you see he’s already planned ahead three years. This is one of the new walls for Coney Art Walls 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris Stain’s mural for Coney Art Walls 2017 integrates a photo taken by Martha Cooper on a New York street in the 1980s with an ocean swell of graffiti washing up around the young lovers. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Welling Court Mural Project in Queens, NY.

The most community oriented among all of the festivals taking place in NYC, Welling Court just completed its 8th edition this month a part of Queens that feels ignored, yet now strangely is getting some high-end real estate?  With a less-structured program and a philosophy of inclusiveness the project attracts a diverse group of local, national and international artists seeking to participate and interact with these neighbors, some of them New Yorks’ newest members, in a weekend-long genuine summer block party. Located in Welling Court in Long Island City in the borough of Queens the walls spread over five blocks or so and can be accessed via the N train to 30th Ave. Take a bus to Welling Court or walk for about 15 minutes on 30th Ave towards the East River.

LMNOPI. Welling Court Mural Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dennis McNett. Detail. Welling Court Mural Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

The L.I.S.A. Project NYC in Little Italy and The Lower East Side.

This Mural Program is the brainchild of Wayne Rada and Ray Rosa, who host artists from all over the world to come and beautify the old neighborhoods of Little Italy and parts of the Lower East Side both in Manhattan. Because its Manhattan and space and turf are contested, you’ll find the works scattered and surprisingly integrated into spots – evoking the element of “discovery” that organic Street Art and graffiti produces.

Not necessarily located on a specific set of blocks the murals are more spread out on several streets in and around Little Italy and can be reached taking a number of subways lines. We’ll advise you take the B or the D trains to Grand Street Station and make your way to Mulberry Street where you’ll enjoy large murals by Ron English and Tristan Eaton and a number of smaller pieces. As you wander, walk, stroll, or crawl through Little Italy you’re bound to discover big and small pieces that run a spectrum of Shepard Fairey, JPO, BKFoxx, KanoKid, The Drif, and Buff Monster.

Kano. L.I.S.A. Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. L.I.S.A. Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Monument Art in El Barrio, Harlem.

Monument Art really concentrates on large high quality murals for El Barrio in NYC. Beginning in 2015 a dozen international artists were invited to paint for two weeks including massive murals by ROA, El Mac, Celso, Ever Siempre, Faith 47 and others others. This year German artist Case Maclaim was invited to paint one highly realistic mural on a school wall located at 310 East 113th Street. Take the 6 train to 110 Street and walk north on Lexington ave towards 113th street.

As you make your way north you’ll see some of the murals painted in 2015.

Case Maclaim. Work in progress. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Case Maclaim. Work in progress. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Case Maclaim. Monument Art. El Barrio, Harlem. NYC. June 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

 

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BSA Images Of The Week: 06.11.17

BSA Images Of The Week: 06.11.17

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“Yes, I’m an infowarrior,” says the African American yelling about how CNN is promoting Sharia Law in downtown Manhattan for the #MarchAgainstSharia and a short distance away someone is wrapping the “Fearless Girl” statue with a black burka. The infowarrior is wearing a red “Make America Free” baseball hat and very much seems like he might be gay. And then your head explodes.

Welcome to the “Disinformation Age.”

But New York is waaaaaay too diverse to even countenance this weird new wave of anti-Islam sentiment and the counter-demonstrators with their signs dwarfed the haters– and being good liberals, they probably invited them to come over for dinner after all that yelling.

Otherwise the weather has been gorgeous and Street Artists have been getting up in New York, when they are not too busy fighting about the David Choe wall and calculating new ways to spray over it. We have brand new mural works from people like Dasic, Cekis, and Case Maclaim, and there is a lot more political content in the new free-range Street Art that we are seeing, with much of it focused on the corruption at the top of the national government, racism, environmental matters, the growing police state.

The Puerto Rican Day Parade is today down 5th Avenue, with people celebrating – and also fighting over the “freedom fighter”/ “Terrorist” Oscar López Rivera, who was going to be the Grand Marshall but whom will now simply be a marcher. And Lucy Sparrow tells us that “Vagisil” and champagne are the two big sellers at her temporary bodega under the Standard Hotel that is 9000 items made entirely of Felt. Our own story on that this week, so there’s something to look forward to, along with 90 degree weather and more brain-frying tweets from 45 in the White House while the Congress is emptying all the cupboards, privatizing everything that used to be the people’s and leaving the back door open for banks.

Other than that, everything is dope!

So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Adam Fujita, Beast, Blanco, Brandon Garrison, Cekis, Dasic, Dirty Bandits, El Sol 25, FKDL, Jetsonorama, Jerk Face, Joe Iurato, Logan Hicks, Mataruda, Mr. Toll, Myth NYC, Opiemme, S0th1s, and She Wolf.

At the top: Dasic and Cekis collab for The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dasic in action. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

S0th1s (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Joe Iurato and Logan Hicks restored collab for The Bushwick Collective Block just in time for the block party 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

FKDL for The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Roof top view of The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

She Wolf (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brandon Garrison (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Trainwwg (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adam Fujita and Dirty Bandits. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Blanco has a new piece about prison and police reform, including advocating for the closure of New York’s Rikers Island. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mataruda (left) and Jetsonorama (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth and She Wolf collab. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jerk Face (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Disney Dollars (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Opiemme in and abandoned USA base in Ligure, Italy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Beast (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Bushwick, Brooklyn. June 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 


Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Vegan Activist Artists Don’t Sell Burgers : Louis Masai Speaks Out About Beef

Vegan Activist Artists Don’t Sell Burgers : Louis Masai Speaks Out About Beef

It’s just the irony of it; A guy who makes art in the streets to raise awareness about endangered species has his mural of a bog turtle used to sell burgers and bacon on a bagel by a fast food company that has been regularly accused over many years of creating deforestation that’s caused by cattle production.

McDonald’s of course, didn’t make or contribute much to this graffiti/Street Art/mural scene, nor did they take any time to understand it. Creative culture vultures everywhere know that it is far easier just to seize other people’s work and slap it into a product than to do the homework. If they’d talked to Louis Masai, they would have gotten an earful.

Preliminary signs point to a lot of people not knowing how Street Artists work would have ended up airing without permission in the newest campaign for McDonald’s in Netherlands that purrs with pride over its connection to real street flava in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick. AdWeek displayed the videos in an article discussing the campaign, but mysteriously the videos have disappeared from that posting and the McDonald’s YouTube channel. The Street Art blog Vandalog had an article about the matter yesterday, and perhaps that fire added to the unbearable heat in McD’s kitchen, as it were.

Naturally on social media posts fingers have been furiously pointing at Joe Ficalora of the Bushwick Collective because he appears giving a tour in the long-form “documentary” style ads that were made by the creative agency who was producing the campaign. In the montages of images, voices, and music you see interviews with four early NYC graffiti writers and one Brazilian street artist  – each of whom Joe invited and who created work for the campaign.

People are quick to pounce and surmise and pontificate about who got paid and what everyone’s good and bad intentions were – and then extrapolate outward into discussions around gentrification, cultural hegemony, parasitic behaviors, selling out a culture, etc. We don’t know for sure what all those details are so we’ll stop short of making accusations at the moment – much will come out in lawsuits going forward no doubt – and really we’re supposed to be writing an intro here…

The thing we do know for sure is there were a lot of shots of other works in those videos by artists – including from another community wall initiative named JMZ Walls – who are all saying that they were never contacted nor did they give McDonald’s permission to use their work in promoting McD’s. This group includes Louis Masai, who writes an editorial essay today here about what his experience was, what his personal opinions are and what he thinks about using his artwork to sell burgers.

 


McDonalds x Bushwick Collective

by Louis Masai

Right now I should be painting, I have a solo show coming up. Instead my mind is over consumed by the frustration and outrage of an advert that was brought to my attention mid Friday afternoon by another artist.

He said to go check my Facebook or Instagram account, that McDonalds had just released what has to be one of the most culturally thieving adverts I have ever seen. After 3:37 minutes, for almost 4 seconds, there it was; my mural of a New York state, endangered bog turtle.

My mural is now advertising a New York bagel beef burger and I am not loving it.

A screenshot of Louis Masai’s bog turtle in Bushwick from the Dutch advertisement for McDonald’s. This was the first in a 3 month cross country mural program Louis did which BSA followed from beginning to end.
See One Artist’s Mission to Save Endangered Species: Louis Masai Completes “The Art Of Beeing” Tour.

For those that are unaware of my work – I paint about endangered species; I use public walls with granted permissions to highlight issues such as biodiversity, the sixth mass extinction, deforestation, and climate change. I am also a vegan. So even if McDonalds had asked me if I minded to be included in their campaign, I would have told them where to shove that bun with a hole. Today, Monday March 13th, after over an hour on the phone talking with the founder of the Bushwick Collective, the three adverts have been removed from the Internet – for now.

Why was I so outraged by all this? Here’s why: The Amazon was the place that inspired scientists to coin the term “biodiversity.” The region is home to 10 percent of all plant and animal species known on Earth. There are approximately 40,000 species of plants, more than 400 mammals, almost 1,300 Birds, and millions of insects. All this life depends on each other and cows are not one of those 400 mammals, according to greenpeace.org.

The production of beef is, without question, the biggest cause of deforestation in the Amazon, with figures ranging from 65 to 70 percent of all deforestation in the area from 2000 to 2005. However these numbers account only for the areas cleared for the creation of pastures, and they fail to include the food being produced for cattle consumption.

The Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies stipulates that Brazil alone has 24 to 25 million hectares devoted to the production of soy, 80 percent of which would end up as animal feed. These numbers all contribute to the consensus that the primary reason for rainforest deforestation in the Amazon can be attributed to the beef industry, according to rainforestpartnership.com.

 


A screenshot that gives that Brooklyn flava from the McDonald’s commercial

McDonalds sells beef burgers, a lot of them. In fact in 2015, despite not being able to disclose exactly how many burgers they sell each year, as this is ‘commercially sensitive information’, it was reported that they expected to sell over 91 million of the world famous Big Mac sandwiches. Who really knows where that hip-hop, New York bagel beef came from? That is why I am outraged that my painting was aired in an advert for McDonalds.

We live in a world where things are perpetually looked at in the wrong light. Think about the text message that you misinterpreted or the tweet that you didn’t manage to squeeze in all the right words for. We live in a “judge me” society, and I’m not favourable of being twinned with a conglomerate company that is directly associated, past or present, with the destruction of biodiversities, lost species and communities.

 

 

 

 Portions of another public mural initiative in Brooklyn called JMZ Walls also appear in the commercials.

The fast-food giant announced in 2015 it would be working with its suppliers to end deforestation in its global supply chain. But how much of that is effective? And how aware is the general public? Whether my point of opinions are correct or not, that doesn’t excuse the fact that McDonalds is not a “sustainable” business; they do not help the environment in a meaningful way, and they definitely have a horrendous past track record. These facts I do know.

I also know, the Bushwick Collective allowed McDonalds to have ownership of my artwork and the sharing of my mural on the Internet, even if that did only last 5 days. Why did Bushwick Collective allow for something that they didn’t own the rights for to pass on in the first place, to be sold? It was an insult to me as a vegan, a violation of my artistic rights and somewhat dark waters for the correlation of my works context.

Screenshot of wall by artist LMNOPI, which was done as a result of a private agreement with the landlord.

McDonalds, cowing back to the depths of its shadows, probably due to concerns of legality, removes the issue of copyright infringement but does it remove their intent to exploit a cherished culture. I am sure that this is not the end of the issue as a whole but for now, I hope that this is a warning to others. Artists are not to be taken advantage of anymore, we will not tolerate it and we will fight back.

Now I’m worried about what is next to come. Should I be watching out for Monsanto to use my bee paintings in a ‘documentary’?


The opinions expressed by Mr. Masai are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the editorz.

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BSA Images Of The Week: 01.15.17

BSA Images Of The Week: 01.15.17

BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015A lot of Street Art went up this week and a lot of serious crap went down on the national stage.

We’re seeing politically themed Street Art appearing up all over the city right now, and some of it is here in our round up – addressing myriad topics, all related to the administration that will take seat before the next Images of the Week.  Sometimes it is defiant, other times despondent. Can’t speak to cities where Trump was overwhelmingly favored. Maybe there is Street Art in Kings County, Texas that is celebrating the end of healthcare, hooray!  Certainly the new big wall along the border is going to need some murals and wheatpastes. We’ll see as soon as the wall pops up there next week.

Many in the more formalized “art world” are advocating a cultural boycott of the planned inauguration on Friday and Hyperallergic is compiling a Running List of New York Galleries and Nonprofits Closing on Friday.

The street scene of course is less organized, mainly because membership in the Street Art club is open to anyone and there are no gatekeepers or frosty gallery assistants to sneer, persuade or dissuade. The street never asked for permission to make (or not) and display (or not) art and other personal aesthetic missives, and it will continue to make its own rules no doubt.

So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Adam Fujita, Cost, Dain, Hater, JustOne, Kristen Liu Wong, Loomit, Myth, Stray Ones, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, and Tats Cru.

First image above: Tatiana Fazlalizadeh. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stray Ones (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kristen Liu-Wong for #artinadplaces (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Loomit for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Loomit. Detail. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Loomit. Detail. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adam Fujita (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hater (photo © Jaime Rojo)

#NoFascistUSA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

#ArtistsforPoliticalSanity (photo © Jaime Rojo)

#ArtistsforPoliticalSanity (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

…we ALL are indeed! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tats Cru . Cost (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JustOne for The Bushwick Collective (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. LES. New York City. January 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA’s 15 Most Popular Murals Of 2016 – A “Social” Survey

BSA’s 15 Most Popular Murals Of 2016 – A “Social” Survey

brooklyn-street-art-bsa-hot-list-top-15-murals-2016-december-740

Murals have captured so much of the popular imagination about what the Street Art scene is today and although they may be part of the definition, murals remain only a part of the entire scene; a visual conversation that includes legal, illegal, small, anonymous, massive, deliberately confounding, low-energy scrawl, stickers, tags, poetry, diatribes, culture jamming, ad takeovers, sculpture, installations. Every week we aim to present a varied selection of expressions currently represented on the street, and then it is your turn to respond.

During 2016 BSA readers responded to images via our website, Instagram, Twitter, Tumbr, and Facebook pages. In a thoroughly unscientific survey that calculates “likes” and “clicks” and “re-Tweets” and “impressions”, we tallied up which murals (or images) got the most interest from you all. Care to read into the results?

The top 3 really sum it all up for 2016 and shouldn’t surprise us, but they still do; Militarism, Mis-information, and the Man of the Year.

If you ever doubted how much art on the street reflects the psyche of a society back to itself, no need to wonder anymore. If only we could read these tea-leaves and tell the future…


No 15.
David Choe’s Portrait Of Martha Cooper for Wynwood Walls / Art Basel 2016.

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David Choe. Detail. Wynwood Walls / Art Basel 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Originally appearing here:

 


No 14
Plotbot Ken’s car installation on the Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin.

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Plotbot Ken’s post-apocolyptic installation on a car at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

 


No 13
Faust and Shantell Martin in Manhattan, NY.

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Handstyle and all New York, baby. Faust. Shantell Martin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 12
Swoon in Brooklyn, NY.

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One of Swoon’s new additions to the street in 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 11
ASTRO in East Harlem.

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ASTRO in East Harlem for #NotACrime campaign in collaboration with Street Art Anarchy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 10 
Nychos in Manhattan, NY.

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More than his multiple murals published here this year, this sculpture on 23rd Street in Manhattan in the spring captured the imagination and gave his work an added dimension. Nychos. “Dissection of Sigmund Freud”. Vienna Therapy. Manhattan, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 9 
MadC in Marrakesh, Morocco.

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Mad C. MB6 Street Art. Marrakesh Biennale 6. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 8
Maya Hayuk in Brooklyn, NY.

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Maya Hayuk. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 7
Invader in Jersey City, NJ.

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Space Invader in Jersey City for Mana Urban Arts Projects. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 6
Collin Van Der Sluijs. Super A in Berlin.

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Collin Van Der Sluijs . Super A.  Detail. Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. One Wall. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 5
Kurar in Berlin

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Kurar for Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. NOTE: This piece was created late in 2015 but we got to it early in 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 4
Biggie Smalls in Brooklyn, NY.

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Rocko & Zimer. NOTE: This piece was created late in 2015 but we got to it early in 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 3
Otto “Osch” Schade in Brooklyn, NY.

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OSCH for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 2
Klops in Brooklyn, NY.

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Klops for The Bushwick Collective illuminates the concentration of 90% of the media in the hands of 6 companies. In 1983 there were 50. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 1
Ron English in Brooklyn, NY.

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Ron English brings Donald Trump as Humpty Dumpty on a wall – in collaboration with The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

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Clubhouse Chemistry in a Warehouse : BSA x UN BERLIN ART BASEL 2016: Dispatch 4

Clubhouse Chemistry in a Warehouse : BSA x UN BERLIN ART BASEL 2016: Dispatch 4

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One of the fantastic parts of Miami’s Art Basel / Wynwood craziness, aside from the colorful drinks and hair sculptures and accidental tripping over almost every Street Artist you have heard of (and many whom you haven’t) is the sheer amount of madhouse chemistry that explodes in your face because of new partnerships and events – like the Juxtapoz Clubhouse in Wynwood opening today.

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Olek. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The premier contemporaty and underground magazine and cultural stew from the west coast teams up with New Jersey’s Mana Urban Arts and others this year to take over one of those previously run-down and neglected parts of the neighborhood to create an “immersive retreat”.

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Denis McNett. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We got a behind-the-scenes peek at the installations and artworks in advance of today’s opening and were pleased to see that the quality is slammin’ –with sufficiently large installations to create an environment and to stand on their own as fully realized concepts.

So many of these artists can work larger, and many have: Dennis McNett stages fully performances and parades of characters pounding like warriors through streets, for example. Dude, the energy is good.

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Denis McNett. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The mix of producers/collaborators at the Clubhouse is contemporary, theatrical, and somehow darkly comic –Jonathan Levine Gallery, Chandran Gallery, MILK Studios, ThinkSpace, and the 1xRun crew – a smartly flipped trip of heavy hitters that relies on the strangely symbiotic and the serendipitous to succeed.

Check out some of the work here and if you are in Miami go to 2400 NW 5th Avenue from December 1-4.

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Laurence Vallieres. Detail. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Ever at work on his installation. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Ever. Detail. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Fintan Magee. Detail. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cern at work on his painting. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cinta Vidal. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Zio Ziegler. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Scott Campbell. This is is an interactive piece which will involve the public. Mr. Campbell is a tattoo artist and through a raffle willing participants will have the opportunity to have their arm tattooed but they will not know what the tattoo will be until completed. The participants will stick his or her arm, trough the hole in the middle of the installation and Mr. Campbell will be unseen, working on the tattoo on the other side of the wall. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Low Bros. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Swoon. Detail of her installation. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Swoon. Detail of her installation. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Adam Wallacavage. Jonathan LeVine Gallery x Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dan Witz. Jonathan LeVine Gallery x Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Shepard Fairey. Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Louis Masai. The Art of Beeing. Mana Urban Arts Projects x The Bushwick Collective/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Louis Masai. The Art of Beeing. Mana Urban Arts Projects x The Bushwick Collective/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Case Maclaim sketching his wall for Wynwood Walls/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Please Do! Artist Unknown. Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Wynwood Awakes: BSA x UN BERLIN ART BASEL 2016: Dispatch 1

Wynwood Awakes: BSA x UN BERLIN ART BASEL 2016: Dispatch 1

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The gallerists and merchants have begun arriving in the South Beach area of Miami to uncrate the art they’ve shipped for the enormous Art Basel and the assorted satellite fairs of Art Basel Miami 2016. Across the Venetian Way heading inland and minutes to the north you see that artist have already been painting on walls in the Wynwood neighborhood.

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Fluke from Canada at work on his mural in Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

First adorned by an entirely organic graffiti and Street Art scene in the late 90s and early 2000s, the low-income neighborhood with a light-manufacturing base has been transformed by real estate and economic development. Now after a decade of inviting local and international artistic talent to come and paint, the Wynwood area of Miami is a beacon of mural art that showcases this moment in its evolution.

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Fluke from Canada at work on his mural in Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Urban Nation (UN) returns this year as well, having worked with many of these artists who will be getting up throughout Wynwood, and BSA is on the streets here with you to see the action as it unfolds with exhibitions, shows, and possibly a party or two. While Wynwood events certainly popped up in the shadow of the annual Art Basel exhibition, art fair patrons and a modicum of celebrity have made the pilgrimage here in greater numbers every year for some urban decay realness, now sprinkled with glitter.

It is no surprise that many of these same artists are now featured in the art fairs as well, represented by new and established galleries and hired by lifestyle brands and moneyed corporations to carry their messages. It’s a heady mix of power, rebellion, politics, aesthetics, and aerosol; and sometimes it is a pure revelation to see the transformations, given the anti-establishment undercurrents that have run through graffiti and the more socio-political activist elements of Street Art throughout the last half-century.

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Fluke from Canada at work on his mural in Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

On a sunny Sunday afternoon in the 70s, minutes away from the sand and the ocean, this grit is just getting stirred up again, and the aerosol fumes are already wafting through the blocks that are now looking less run-down, and decidedly under development.

West Coast based mural magician and philosopher Chor Boogie, with his protective air mask perched like mini-horns atop his head, smiles and welcomes a visitor happily because this time is just before the flood, before the sidewalks are thick with ipad-photographers and selfie-takers and fans of all sorts.

With moving vans and ladders and boxes of cans being unpacked, this neighborhood is clearly gearing up for a party again, and many artists have already laid down line work to play alongside pieces that have survived previous years. As the events unfold we’ll keep you apprised of the ones we trip into.

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It could just be us, but does this look like Al Pacino to you? Greece’s INO in Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Chor Boogie at work on his tribute mural for his mother. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Chor Boogie at work on his tribute mural for his mother. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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D*Face from a previous edition of Art Basel. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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CERO from a previous edition of Art Basel. This mural was made with tiles and mosaics. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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CERO from a previous edition of Art Basel. Detail. This mural was made with tiles and mosaics. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Crash. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dasic Fernandez from last year edition of Mana Urban Arts Project X Bushwick Collective at Art Basel. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sipros from last year edition of Mana Urban Arts Project X Bushwick Collective at Art Basel. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mateo. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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This Herakut mural was executed in 2o12 and it is still in a remarkable condition. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Herakut. Detail. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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MSK. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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TCP. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 


This article is the result of a collaborative partnership with BSA and Urban Nation (UN).

 

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BSA Film Friday 10.28.16

BSA Film Friday 10.28.16

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Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :
1. Louis Masai: The Art Of Beeing. New York City
2. “BILLS” from InDecline
3. The All-Seeing Trump in an NYC Park from The Dusty Rebel
4. Erik Vestman & Nils Petter: Up On The Roofs

 

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BSA Special Feature: Louis Masai: The Art Of Beeing. New York City

He’s doing it! The cross country trip/tour of painting murals that draws attention to the entire species that we are killing off. Louis Masai calls it “The Art of Beeing,” and here’s the first city of the tour, NYC.

 

“BILLS” from InDecline

Modern anti-hero artists named InDecline have produced this new rage-filled art film full of action, violence, politics, and even comedy.

The All-Seeing Trump in an NYC Park from The Dusty Rebel

A new video this week features Trump as a fortune teller – until the city evicts him.

Here’s how The Dusty Rebel describes it:

“A mysterious Donald Trump fortune-telling machine has been popping up all over New York City. In Tribeca Park, dozens gathered around to hear the automatic Trump list off his various visions for America’s future. One of the dozens of misfortunes was: ‘Not every woman is a dog – only the fat, disgusting ones. And don’t worry: in the future, when I am president, I’ll do something about it. We are gonna make America SEXY again!’ After the Zoltar-like Trump finished, the machine dispenses a paper fortune, which states things like, ‘The future is not to be feared, unless you are Black, Mexican, or Muslim.’

The Tribeca Park installation lasted a short time before a man, who never identifies himself, demanded the All-Seeing Trump machine be removed. Quickly the press ask him who he is and what authority he has to ask for the machine to be removed. While he never answers, the people with him are from the NYC Park Department. At one point, things getting a bit tense between the press and the Parks Department workers.”

More from The Dusty Rebel

Erik Vestman & Nils Petter: Up On The Roofs

“Sometimes, I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
– Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

Swedish duo Erik and Nils want to be higher than the birds, up on the rooftops. It is a simple spark for your imagination, delivering you back to storybooks and children’s stories with a silhouette on the roof against the sky. With the right  inspiration, you can add your own story.

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Louis Masai: “The Art Of Beeing” Tour Kicks Off in NYC to Save Endangered Species

Louis Masai: “The Art Of Beeing” Tour Kicks Off in NYC to Save Endangered Species

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Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Activism and Street Art go hand in hand and some artists are skilled at activating public space for hearts and brains to spark and cogitate. During the last 15 years we’ve documented a number of seriously affecting artworks on the street that use text and/or imagery to address political, social, environmental, and economic issues and opinions by artists as varied as Shepard Fairey, Banksy, John Fekner, Ganzeer, LMNOPI, Myth, Gilf!, Gaia, LNY, Jetsonorama, and any number of one-shot authors. In this election year there are too many Trumps to count, and a few Hillary pieces as well.

Undaunted by commercial interests and able to deliver directly to the passerby, Street Artists know that their visual message isn’t guaranteed acceptance but they take a chance anyway. The ones that reflect the sentiments on the street tend to last longer, aesthetics count, and so does spelling, at least that is our inductive observation.

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Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

One London artist who seriously raises awareness about the Earths’ endangered species is Louis Masai, a painter, sculptor, illustrator and Street Artist. Starting this week in New York Masai is beginning a 20 mural tour across the United States to talk about the hard working, honey-making, pretty pollinating bee – and a number of our animals that are in danger of dying off completely.

He calls this tour The Art of Beeing and with a small team of friends he will travel over the next 2 months to Detroit, Reno, Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, El Paso, Austin, New Orleans, Nashville, Atlanta, and finally Miami. BSA is proud to be a supporter of this project and we hope to bring you every last little animal and mural that Louis creates in this grueling march.

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Each city wall will feature animals from that region which are endangered, and the list is fairly shocking, truth be told. Who knew the New England cottontail bunny was borderline endangered, for example. Don’t they mate like, um, rabbits?

In each mural he’ll cover the animal with a metaphorical patchwork quilt, symbolic of the many people and efforts that it will take to save it and protect it from extinction. Hovering nearby is a bee holding a needle and thread to stitch the quilting squares together.

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Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The shape itself may remind you of a children’s toy, and Louis says that is his intention.

“I’m painting toys because if we don’t act now to stop extinction, only toys will remain in place of animals,” he says.

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Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It is Mr. Masai’s hope that we will collectively work to protect these animals before they disappear. In an instance of sad irony the artist begins this cross-country tour when the United States has just announced in late September that 7 varieties of US bees are now on the endangered species list (Washington Post).

Last year The Guardian reported that nearly one in ten bees in Europe face extinction and there have been reports worldwide in the last decade of bee colonies collapsing at alarming rates.

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Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

If you think this is just about honey, think again. It is estimated that bees and other pollinators are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat. We obviously have to be the people who push to improve the situation because corporations and industry can’t think beyond the next three months and their shareholders.

Like the Art of Beeing website says, “The extinction crisis is hands down one of the most important issues of our generation,” and 50% of the planet’s species could be erased by 2050.

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Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016.  The reluctant subjects. The whole road team. @louismasai on the center with @emil.walker on the left and @teebyford on the right. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. Bog Turtle. Endangered. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October  2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. New England Cottontail Rabbit. Vulnerable. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 


 

The Art of Beeing needs your donations. CLICK on their Kickstarter link to help.

Click http://louismasai.com/projects/the-art-of-beeing/ to learn more about the project.

Our sincere thanks to Joe Ficalora at The Bushwick Collective for his help.


 

Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

 

 

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